Ashland High School boys edge Wooster for cross country title

Wednesday

NANKIN -- If Tuesday afternoon's Mapleton Invitational cross country meet was any sort of precursor, the Ohio Cardinal Conference will have one heck of a boys race on its hands come October.

Landing the initial blow in a head-to-head battle of likely league contenders, Ashland utilized a strong surging pack over the final mile to edge rival Wooster, 38-41, in an event that featured four local programs.

It was one of the many highlights of the meet, which also included convincing victories from Northwestern's Shane Berger (16:50.55) and the Wooster girls team.

"At the mile mark they had us," said AHS boys coach Tim Black, who added Lexington is the conference favorite. "We raced Saturday at the state preview meet and I think our guys got the jitters out there. They didn't come out and try to kill the first mile today. We ran a smart race, were able to recover some spots and the guys did what they needed to do."

"We've got a tight pack," he added. "We had five guys again under 18 minutes, now we just need to get them quite a bit lower. ... But early on, they're racing well."

Running their second of a five-meet gauntlet during the season's first two weeks, the Arrows looked anything but weary as they overcame the Generals late. AHS posted a 28-second spread for its 1-5 pack, getting its top effort for the second straight meet from Maxx Davidson (fifth, 17:26.24).

"What I expected was to learn what the boys were capable of right now, and I think this was a good first effort for them," WHS boys coach Doug Bennett said. "I think what we needed if we wanted to win the team score is we have to learn to run as a team better instead of running within ourselves and running with that concern of, 'How am I doing?' (It needs to be), 'How is the team doing?' That takes some vision when you're running out there. ... As we get through the season, they'll get more confident and I'd imagine they're gonna be a much-improved team. This is just a start."

As for Berger, the Northwestern junior continued his early-season assault on the NHS record books by besting the school standard for the second time in four days. He first set it Saturday at the OHSAA Preseason Invitational, then shaved another couple seconds off Tuesday for a 10-second win.

"I've been training more in the summer, got some motivation from several people," said Berger, whose squad finished fourth (107) and received another Top 15 effort from Andrew McCoy (14th, 18:11.86). "My coaches, my family, they helped drive me to do more work this summer than in previous summers. ... It's pretty nice. It's the first time I've actually won a cross country race before, so it's pretty exciting."

The next local across the finish line was Mapleton's Noah Cook, a school record-holder in his own right. Cook posted a 17:19.54 to take fourth and lead the Mounties, who used a solid 3-5 pack of Mason Weibel (20th, 19:07.55); John Smith Jr. (21st, 19:09.79); and Thomas Buchanan (22nd, 19:13.74) to take third overall (80).

"I felt really good about Noah Cook's performance and Mason Weibel's," said MHS coach Joe Ortiz, who also got a good effort from Zack Durbin (13th, 18:10.43). "Obviously my job is to look for ways to improve, and I think we have those. That's a good thing, too, because our goals are high for the season. I don't think this is our best race of the season by a long shot, so I'm pretty excited of what's to come this year."

Rounding out local teams in the boys race was Loudonville, which placed fifth (224) as senior Travis Price picked up right where he left off last season, clocking in at 18:05.37 for 11th place. The Redbirds additionally recorded the area's best finish in the girls race (third, 84), but Wooster left little doubt Tuesday that it was the class of the Mapleton field.

The Generals (22) put their five scoring harriers in the race's Top 9 spots and boasted half of the first 22 finishers to cruise past Dalton (58) for the overall title. Becca Kreuzman paced the squad in third (23:00.67), and Lauren Miller (fifth, 23:26.36); Hannah Rice (seventh, 23:31.95); Kaitlyn Aukerman (eighth, 23:33.16); and Meghan Bogner (ninth, 23:52.83) finished shortly thereafter.

"It was a good race for us," Wooster girls coach Nikki Reynolds said. "... (For this meet, our girls were) out there to try and get a personal best, try to get their meet PB, and I think a lot of them ran real well. It was a lot cooler today, so that helped a lot of them."

Sandwiched in between Miller and Rice was Loudonville senior Hadley Greer, who showed little rust in her return to cross country after taking the last two years off. Greer pushed past Rice over the final 150 meters and crossed the line in 23:30.60, good enough for sixth.

"It's nice to get her back," LHS coach Don Baun said. "She didn't run during the summer, but she's always been just a natural. You put her out there and she can run real well, so a little bit of training these past couple weeks and she's back in the same form and leading our team. ... It's gonna be an exciting year for our girls."

Baun added that he also was impressed with freshman Morgan Kline (12th, 24:40.49) and junior Sage Weber (13th, 24:43.00), and the Redbirds should continue to improve as they had two runners who didn't compete Tuesday.